There’s a new place to hang out on the stretch of Milwaukee Avenue between Fullerton and California, and this one is home to pool tables, foosball and a sprawling well-stocked bar.
Emporium Logan Square (@EmporiumChicago, 2363 N. Milwaukee Ave.) opened Monday, and their opening party is tonight, Wednesday July 23.
New Location, New Ideas
While neighbors may be familiar with Emporium’s Wicker Park location (1366 N. Milwaukee Ave.), the Logan Square bar features table games as opposed to video games. Pool tables, air hockey and foosball tables sit in the back of the open space. Pinball machines and table video games also call this new bar home.
Emporium owner Danny Marks says deciding on the new location was easy when he saw the space last fall. He also says that he was encouraged by the amount of other businesses planning to open on the stretch.
“This space here was bigger than Emporium Wicker Park and I had in my mind we could do a variation on a regular arcade bar, a different variation on Emporium Wicker Park,” says Marks.
Emporium Logan Square patron, Aaron, says that he is happy with the arcade’s new theme.
“It’s a nice big, open place and they have a lot of cool pinball games,” says Aaron who is a fan of the arcade bar trend. “It’s different, there aren’t any arcade games here but that’s cool, I play mostly pinball games anyway so I think it’s good.”
Inside Of The Barcade
The bar serves up bottled and canned craft beer while a blue food truck parked just inside the front door offers fresh deli sandwiches.
“There’s kind of a lack of places to get sandwiches in the area, so we have the truck with some good deli meats serving sandwiches,” says Marks.
In addition to the games and refreshments, the arcade boasts works from a slew of Chicago street artists. Each of the featured artists claim a portion of the walls for their art. Artists include Slang (@slangism), Nice One, Lucx, Jc Rivera (@JcRivera), Left Handed Wave (@LeftHandedWave).
With ample seating at the winding bar and plenty of tables and standing room for groups coming to play their favorite table games, there is plenty of space for gamers and bar-goers alike.
Marks believes that bars like both Emporium Logan Square and Wicker Park’s Emporium Arcade Bar provide fun and relaxed environments to just hang out with friends.
“It was fun to be in places like this in 1984, and it’s still fun in 2014,” says Marks.
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